Linder said his office has taken note of the announcement by Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, that Iran has inaugurated a uranium conversion plant in Isfahan, about 155 miles from Teheran.

The plant would extract gas from uranium ore, which is a crucial step to preparing for uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium can be used both to create atomic energy and to make atomic bombs.

Aghazadeh's "declaration sends the wrong signal on Iran's readiness to implement a suspension of activities related to uranium enrichment facilities," Lindner said. "It will make it more difficult for Iran to regain international trust in its activities."

Britain and France have also condemned the development.

Germany, France and Britain have been active in Iran. Last year the three countries' foreign ministers visited Teheran and secured a commitment to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency greater access to Iranian nuclear operations.

Iran's envoy in Canada says his country's policy would not change following parliamentary elections Iranian Ambassador in Canada Mohammad Ali Mousavi said on Friday that Iran's foreign policy would not change tremendously following the 20 February parliamentary elections, IRNA reported from New York.

Speaking to reporters in a press conference in Ottawa, Mousavi touched on the developments taking shape in the Iranian society and on the recent parliamentary polls and said no major changes would happen in the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic.

He said Iran would continue to promote its policy of detente and to boost its ties with the world countries especially the countries in the region and its neighbors as well as the Islamic states.

Mousavi said the hand-over of power from one group to the other would cause no major change in the policies of the Islamic Republic as the country's foreign policy is the result of the consensus among all the Iranian political groups and would remain all-but the same.

He turned to the Iranian nuclear activities and said the cooperation between the Islamic Republic and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would continue as in the past.

Iran which is under massive pressure from the United States to maintain the suspension of uranium enrichment has consistently emphasized its right under the NPT to produce nuclear fuel for what it insists are strictly peaceful purposes.

The United States says Iran has set up a secret government committee overseeing efforts to conceal key elements of the country's nuclear program from international inspectors.

The IAEA has been investigating since February 2003 whether Iran's nuclear program is peaceful, or devoted to secretly developing atomic weapons, as the United States alleges.

The IAEA is to report its findings at a meeting in Vienna in June that the agency's chief Mohammed ElBaradei has said will be key in the consideration of Iran's implementation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Mousavi then commented on the bilateral ties between Iran and Canada and the need for the joint efforts to counter terror and organized crimes in the region and in the world.

The Iranian minister of foreign affairs asked his Canadian counterpart to urge the Canadian administration to cooperate with Iran for adopting a realistic attitude toward the issues between the two countries.

MOSCOW, April 3 (AFP) -- Russia criticized the United States Saturday for slapping sanctions on two Russian companies accused of assisting Iran in its alleged nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programmes.

The Russian Foreign Ministry in a statement swiped at Washington for the unilateral measures and said that Russia strictly abided by its international commitments in fighting non-proliferation.

The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on 13 companies and individuals from seven countries: five Chinese, two Macedonian and two Russian companies as well as one firm each from Belarus, North Korea, Taiwan and the United Arab Emirates.

"Russia opposes the imposition of sanctions by one state against structures in other countries," the Foreign Ministry said.

"As far as non-proliferation is concerned, in Russia there are strict laws on export controls that conform to international standards and which allow us to prevent any illegal activity linked to trade in sensitive materials," it added.

US officials said it had uncovered much of the foreign companies' illegal trade from the unraveling of Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan's illicit nuclear proliferation network.

The targeted companies will be banned from exporting goods to or receiving contracts or assistance from the United States and US firms will be barred from trading with them for two years.

Russian media reports named one of the two firms in Russia as the Omsk Engine-Construction Plant, which manufactures engines for planes and rockets. An individual named as Vadim Vorobei is also reportedly on the US blacklist.